Band-Aid Donations Sought for Bandage Project

Nov 08, 2017 08:25PM
● Published by Jeanne Fratello

A portion of the Band-Aids collected for the Bandage Project (photo courtesy Lisa Liss)

A massive, decade-long effort to collect 1.5 million Band-Aids as a memorial to the children who perished in the Holocaust is not quite complete... and a local student has launched an effort to get Manhattan Beach residents involved.

The Bandage Project was started in 2008 by Sacramento-area teacher Lisa Liss, who wanted to teach her students about the staggering number of children who were killed in the Holocaust. The class came up with the idea of collecting 1.5 million Band-Aids, each printed with the name of a child who died, which they plan to display at the Museum of Tolerance in Los Angeles upon completion.

Nearly ten years into the project, Liss's effort has garnered 916,255 bandages, but still needs more than half a million to go.

Enter Manhattan Beach MIddle School student Teddy Glozman who heard about the project and decided he wanted to help. "I wanted to teach kids how to be more tolerant to other people, and to teach kids about the Holocaust," he said.

Glozman has currently set up two collection places in Manhattan Beach accepting Band-Aids for the project: one at Manhattan Beach Middle School and another at the Congregation Tikvat Jacob synagogue. (Glozman and his mother Liz advise that you can get 100 Band-Aids for 99 cents at the 99 Cent Store.)

"Through this project we are trying to promote tolerance and teach that hate hurts and tolerance heals," said Liz Glozman. "Band-Aids come in every shape, size and color, just like children, and they promote healing. With this collection, we can become part of something bigger."

Teacher Lisa Liss says that the whole effort has taken longer than expected, but that fact in and of itself has become a learning opportunity. "We thought it would be something that happened quickly, but our
average is about 100,000 bandages a year," she said.

Liss added, "I've often been discouraged because it is
taking too long, until a manager at the Wal-Mart where I was purchasing
the bandages by the caseload gave me hope. He asked why I bought so many
bandages. I explained the Bandage Project to him and he said, 'You
haven't reached your goal yet because more students need to be a part of
it...If you finished it quickly, only one class would be a part, so
many classes need to experience this and learn about healing.' Since
then, we have hope and I know that hundreds of children are a part of
it."

Once the project is complete, the plan is to display the collection at the Museum of Tolerance. Liss adds: "I was lucky to be chosen to attend the Anne Frank Symposium in
Amsterdam last November, and the directors there encouraged me to donate
a million of the bandages to a refugee camp once it is completed. I
love that idea! They said they will help me find which refugee camp to
take them to."